Countee Cullen – My Soul’s High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance

„Countee Cullen’s poetry, like all great art, speaks for itself. But Gerald Early’s introduction amplifies clarifies, and enriches, turning Cullen’s voice into something strong and sharp enough to fracture glass. Only a brillianr scholar could tell us so much of Cullen’s life and times, and only a brilliant writer could tell us so elegantly. Thanks to Early, Cullen’s fine old wine has been decanted into crystal.” –David Bradley

„[Professor] Early reveals the complexities of {Countee] Cullen’s intellectual and emotional ties both to the standard Western canon and to the African-American tradition. Imaginative and witty, yet free of the preciousness that characterizes so much contemporary writing in the field, [Early’s introduction] is certain to delight those scholars seeking new perspectives on issues of current interest in African-American literature and culture.” –Wilson J. Moses, Director of Afro-American Studies, Boston University

Contents

Introduction by Gerald Early

from COLOR
Yet do I marvel
A song of praise
Brown boy to brown girl
A brown girl dead
To a brown girl
Black Magdalens
Atlantic City waiter
Tableau
Simon the Cyrenian speaks
Two who crossed a line [she crosses]
Two who crossed a line [he crosses]
Incident
Saturday’s child
Pagan prayer
Wisdom cometh with the years
Fruit of the flower
The shroud of color
Heritage
For a poet
For my grandmother
For a lady I know
For an atheist
For an evolutionist and his opponent
For an anarchist
For a pessimist
For daughters of Magdalen
For a mouthy woman
For John Keats, apostle of beauty
For Paul Laurence Dunbar
For Joseph Conrad
For myself
If you should go
Spring reminiscence
She of the dancing feet sings
Judas Iscariot
The wise
To John Keats, poet. At spring time
Song of praise
Harsh world that lashest me
Requiescam

from COPPER SUN
From the dark tower
Threnody for a brown girl
Uncle Jim
Colored blues singer
Colors
The litany of the dark people
Pity the deep in love
One day we played a game
Variations on a theme
A song of sour grapes
Lament
The love tree
The wind bloweth where it listeth
Thoughts in a zoo
Two thoughts of death
Love’s way
In spite of death
Cor cordium
Lines to my father
Protest
An epitaph
Youth sings a song of rosebuds
Hunger
More than a fool’s song
Advice to a beauty
Ultimatum
At the wailing wall in Jerusalem
To Endymion
Epilogue

from THE BLACK CHRIST AND OTHER POEMS
To the three for whom the book
Tribute
That bright chimeric beast
To an unknown poet
Little sonnet to little friends
Mood
Counter mood
Minutely hurt
The foolish heart
For Helen Keller
Not Sacco and Vanzetti
Self criticism
A thorn forever in the breast
The proud heart
Therefore, adieu
At a parting
Dictum
Bright bindings
Black majesty
Ghosts
Song in spite of myself
Nothing endures
The street called crooked
To certain critics
The black Christ

from THE MEDEA AND SOME POEMS
After a visit
Magnets
Any human to another
Only the polished skeleton
To France
Medusa
Sonnet [1]
Sonnet [2]
Sonnet [3]
To one not there
Sonnet [4]
Sonnet [5]
Sonnet dialogue
To France
Death to the poor
The cat
Cats
Scottsboro, too, is worth its song

THE MEDEA

THE BALLAD OF THE BROWN GIRL: AN OLD BALLAD RETOLD

UNCOLLECTED POEMS
Dear friends and gentle hearts
Karenge ya marenge
Christus natus est
Apostrophe to the land
To the swimmer
Life’s rendezvous
I have a rendezvous with life
La belle, la douce, la grande
A Negro mother’s lullaby
Lines for a hospital
Judas Iscariot (first version)
From life to love
Night rain
Singing in the rain
The poet

ONE WAY TO HEAVEN

ESSAYS AND SPEECHES
The development of creative expression
„The Dark Tower” column from Opportunity magazine, April 1928
The League of Youth address
Countee Cullen to his friends
Countee Cullen on French courtesy
Countee Cullen in England
Countee Cullen on miscegenation

APPENDIX
Prologue and Epilogue for The Medea
James Baldwin, „Rendezvous with life: an interview with Countee Cullen”

COUNTEE CULLEN BIBLIOGRAPHY   źródło opisu: Anchor Books, 1991 źródło okładki: amazon.co.uk